HomeKit is smart home automation certification from Apple
With the dawn of the Smart Home comes Apple's jump into the fray. This week at WWDC 2014, Apple has announced their first Home Automation Certification initiative called HomeKit. With this certification comes official Apple interactivity along with APIs for developers to work with.
A common network protocol will be delivered, said Apple's Craig Federighi, "there are great apps and devices on the market, but we thought we could bring some rationality to this." Federighi went on to show a slide with names of collaborators ready to work with Apple.
This slide included:
iDevices
iHome
Texas Instruments
Osram SYLVANIA
CREE
Chamberlain
Marvell
Skybell
August
Honeywell
Haier
Schlage
Philips
Kwikset
Broadcom
Netamo
Withings
Apple will be working with locks, lights, doors, thermostats, cameras, switches, and plugs. In this certification comes Siri integration, the grouping of devices into "scenes", control of individual devices, and secure pairing.
Stick around as we see how deep this integration goes. We'll likely soon be turning our lights out and our locks tight with a request to our favorite smart assistant. Have a peek at SlashGear's Apple hub for more.